Looking into buying a scanner, so far i thinking of getting ether the HP Scanjet 4850 and the Canon CanoScan Lide 500F. I like the look of the HP plus the dpi res goes higher, any opinions?? i'll be using it to scan pictures and proberly txt. Also this film negative scanning they can do, does this mean i can scan the negative and get a photo image out of it that i can print ??

I used the Epson Perfection 3170 for all my scanning needs for a few years. I liked the scanner and what I was able to scan (slides, negatives, medium format film, and prints). I traded that scanner in a few weeks ago for the Epson Perfection 4490 and I'm lovin' it so much more. Today, I'm taking a few negatives and slides in to a pro lab near by that is going to use a drum scanner to scan in the negatives, so I can compare the quality of the two. I will definately let you know how it turns out.

The 4490 scans at 4800dpi and has Digital Ice and is only $250 US. I'm really happy with it and would recommend it to anyone who doesn't have the money or who doesn't need perfect slide/neg scans. I scan all my prints at 1200dpi. At that resolution, the quality is there and if I want, I can resize it 400% and still maintain the look of the original.

They also have the 4990, the 4870 replacement, which has the same features, plus it can scan 8x10 tranparencies. That's about $500 US. With the 4490 and 4990, you're looking at roughly a 3000dpi equivalent of a drum scanner or a dedicated film scanner when scanning at 4800dpi. At 3000dpi, a 35mm slide or negative will give you a 14" x 9" printat 300ppi. At 4800dpi, you're looking at a 22" x 14" print at 300ppi or 17" x 26" print at 250 ppi.